Posted on 07/20/2004 9:53:07 AM PDT by NotchJohnson
Try this one. Since you seem to place value on what people who were actually there - as opposed to Ann Coulter - have to say, perhaps this will be a little eye-opener:
S.C. veteran’s revelation changed a life
Batesburg-Leesville man surprised ex-senator by correcting an old war story
By CHUCK CRUMBO - Nov. 9, 2003
Staff Writer
All Steve Price remembers about an explosion on a hill in Vietnam is helping a badly wounded soldier. “There was blood all over. I thought he was dead,” said Price, who was an infantryman in the Marine Corps back in 1968.
Three decades later Price — now a 54-year-old resident of Batesburg-Leesville — learned the soldier not only survived but went on to serve as head of the Veterans Administration and a U.S. senator. The soldier was Max Cleland of Georgia. “I was aware of Max Cleland. I had seen him on TV,” said Price. “But I never had any idea it was the same person who was on the same hill where I was back in 1968.” Price concedes “it’s a pretty wild story.” But it’s also illustrative of the coincidences of life in the military, something the Midlands and the nation will reflect on when Veterans Day is celebrated Tuesday.
On April 4, 1968, Price was with the Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines. Charlie Company was opening up Route 9 going into Khe Sanh, near the demilitarized zone between the then-separate North and South Vietnams, and had secured a mountaintop.
Cleland, a captain in the Army Signal Corps, and his team flew by helicopter to the hill that Price and Charlie Company held to set up a radio relay tower. When the helicopter landed, Cleland and his soldiers jumped off and the helicopter immediately ascended. Then there was an explosion.
Price, who was digging a foxhole, thought the blast might have been an enemy mortar round. It was common for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to shoot at landing helicopters, Price said. This time, a soldier was severely wounded. It was Cleland and he had lost an arm and a leg. His other leg was badly mangled.
David Lloyd, one of Price’s buddies in Charlie Company, was among those who rushed to help. He applied a tourniquet to one leg. “I tightened that belt as best as I could,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd, Price and other Marines loaded the wounded captain onto a helicopter that hauled him to a field hospital. The blast was caused by a grenade that had fallen on the ground. It exploded as Cleland reached to pick it up.
For years, Cleland believed he was the one who dropped the grenade, which led to the loss of his right arm and both legs. Cleland retold the story in 1999 on a History Channel program. Lloyd, who was watching the show at his home in Annapolis, Md., picked up the phone and called Cleland’s office. The story, Lloyd said, was wrong.
Lloyd said the blast was caused by another soldier’s grenade — not Cleland’s. Lloyd said he knew because after Cleland was loaded onto the helicopter, another soldier, who had been hit by shrapnel, was crying. Lloyd tried to console the soldier, who said he had dropped the grenade. The grenade exploded when its cotter pin had fallen out, activating the explosive, said the 57-year-old Lloyd. The soldier told Lloyd that he had straightened the pins so it would be easier to pull them when he had to throw a grenade.
Lloyd’s revelation, which checked out, changed Cleland’s life, Cleland has written. For 30 years, Cleland had blamed himself for his injuries.
Lloyd later tracked down Price and told him the story about Cleland. “I remembered the incident. It stood out in my mind,” Price said. “But that was just about it.”
Disregarding your own safety to aid those who are wounded and under fire would seem to be worthy of such a citation, no matter how jaded you may be.
Cleland's military service wouldn't be an issue today had he, the Kerry Campaign, the Democrats, and the liberal media not trashed President Bush's honorable service in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.
It was they who started this who-did-what in Vietnam. It seems that they aren't man enough to finish it.
Whatever Cleland did in the military has been greatly diminished by what he's doing now.
Assuming the citation is accurate.
"[Cleland] didn't step on a land mine. He wasn't wounded in a firefight. He couldn't blame the Viet Cong or friendly fire. The Silver Star and Bronze Star medals he received only embarrassed him. He was no hero. He blew himself up." (Baltimore Sun, Oct. 24, 1999)
"Cleland was no war hero, but his sacrifice was great. ... Democratic Senate candidate Max Cleland is a victim of war, not a casualty of combat. He lost three limbs on a long-forgotten hill near Khe Sanh because of some American's mistake ..." (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 29, 1996)
From Ann Coulter's "File Under 'Omission Accomplished'" article.
Well now he's throwing grenades for Kerry. I guess that's an improvement.
Well now he's throwing grenades for Kerry. I guess that's an improvement.
Well, at least ole Max is a quick learner! But losing 3 limbs is a hard lesson to learn.
Tell it like it is, brother Neal.
If Cleland had been ordered to take a physical examination, failed to do so, and therefore been disqualified from doing the job he was trained to do, would you call his service "honorable"?
Where are these official documents you are paraphrasing? All you have posted is a Coulter article.
You have also made several claims about what people who were present have said about the incident, but you haven't posted a single, solitary fact stated by anyone else who was there.
It takes a special kind of talent to make a claim, and then contend that a direct contradiction of your claim "does not dispute my point."
Thanks for doing all the dirty work here.
I get so sick of the kind of debate that sometimes goes on around here. Can't we just all trash Cleland's voting record and boo-hoo sore loserness then attack his vietnam record, which was by all reasonable accounts heroic and honorable?
Amazing how these people are conjured up from many years ago to vindicate these liberal heros'? Sgt Alvin York and 2LT Audie Murphy were real heros. They wee humble and did not go around tooting their own horn. Bush/Chney 2004
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